How to make money with free apps/games ?

General (non-technical) Off-Topic
#1

there are many many free Iphone/ipad apps and games, how can the developer make money with free apps/games ?

in app store, you can have developer web site, but can you put googe ads ( adsense) in your web site?
i mean when people download your free apps from itune/app store, they may also look at developer web site and click the google ads on your developer site. is that alowed by term of service of Apple/Google?

are there any way to make money with free apps/games ?

thanks
[import]uid: 83418 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 315831[/import]

#2

Hey free apps with ads support is a good deal like Blast Monkeys.

http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/07/blast-monkeys-top-3-million-downloads-still-1/

Comment by damacon - July 15th, 2011 at 5:36 pm

Guys… don’t be so discouraged by the fact that app is free. Smart guys from Yobonja are using inner-active ad network (not the best btw, millenial media + jumptap may be better). Given number of their downloads, I suspect that they are generating about 10M views daily and probably about 100 000 clicks which may translate to $3k daily. This can be $1m per year business and this is only Android.

Yobonja Rules ! [import]uid: 13454 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 58502[/import]

#3

Hi,

You can also do in-app purchases. That is a big way for free games to make money. Zombie Farm, on iPhone, is going to make double-digit millions of dollars.

http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/The+PlayForge+news/news.asp?c=26105

Glu Mobile also uses the free-to-play model…I did an interview with them. Feel free to check it out…good stuff on the future of mobile games
http://www.indiegamepod.com/?p=2782

Enjoy :slight_smile: [import]uid: 12700 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 58543[/import]

#4

IAP is certainly a good way to go, as are in game ads.

For your website, provided the advertisements are not of an adult nature there is no reason you couldn’t use AdSense on there. (Website content cannot be inappropriate for users looking for support.)

Peach [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 58562[/import]

#5

yes, i see ads in blast monkeys. what kind ads is this, how can i add into my ipad/iphone game?

which one Corona is supporting for IOS ?

thank ou for your reply
[import]uid: 83418 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 58586[/import]

#6

i have my first iPad game made with Great Corona SDK on itune/app store with a price $0.99.

i wold like to submit thia game for iphone and like to make it free for iphone, but with some kind of adds,
when user click, still can earn little money.

can please help to tell me :

1)what kind os adds is the best

  1. what kind ads i can integtreated to this free iphone game? this adds can be added with Corona,
    i mean Corona supported adds integration

  2. this adds should be ok with apple term of service

3)if you can have a very sipple code example to integrate the ads is th best

thank you so much

[import]uid: 83418 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 58594[/import]

#7

I`m not a PRO on that but here you find valuable information about AdMob by Google.

http://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2011/03/20/got-admob-working-android [import]uid: 13454 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 58598[/import]

#8

Thanks for your help.

more questions:

the link just talked about google Admobi with Android, not IOS, is there any docs from Corona for how to integrate admobi to Corona game?

if i have a google adsense account , can i use it or i have to apply account for admobi seperately?

what other ads i can use which is ready for integrating with Corona?

thanks again [import]uid: 83418 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 58599[/import]

#9

I have AdSense and AdMob account but never used that in any way, at the moment !
Google own Admob so i use my Google account to login.

Hey in that post they talk about iOS so the same Android code run very well on iOS:

kam187 of Base 2 Solutions Posted on Fri, 2011-05-20 15:37

Got this working on android and >>> iOS <<< . I’ll update in detail later. The above code works fine for android on all devices - except 3.0.

http://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2011/03/20/got-admob-working-android

Ready everything again XD [import]uid: 13454 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 58615[/import]

#10

I’m also trying to figure out the best approach to ads using Corona. Two options I’ve implemented have some downsides.

Option 1: Admob “hack” as shown by kam187. It’s tricky to get working, and there is some question as to if it will continue to work since Google has stated they are removing some features that make this hack possible. Also some Corona users have complained on these forums about miserable fill rates, payouts being delayed, and even accounts canceled. Not a solution I want to hang my hat on.

Option 2: Corona’s ad network using inMobi. On the surface this seems like the best solution since it’s pretty easy to implement and it’s “official”. But so far there have been some bugs that Ansca/inMobi have been slow to correct. Of the few users who seem to have gotten this to work in a shipping app there have been complaints of even worse fill rates than Admob. I really want this option to work but there are issues that still need to be ironed out.

There are many other ad network providers out there. Most of them provide some custom code to get working inside an app, but unfortunately we don’t have the ability to add native code to a Corona-based app. But there must be other “hacks” that would work in a similar fashion to the admob hack. For instance, can anyone chime in with info on how Yobonja got inneractive working in Blast Monkeys? Or how about the ad networks Millenial and Jumptap that KeepTrying mentions above? [import]uid: 9422 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 58811[/import]

#11

interesting and (shocking?) article?:

http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/03/more-app-store-economics-case-study-of-10m-download-game-monetized-through-ads-how-much-money.html [import]uid: 90610 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 83749[/import]

#12

@keeptrying I’m curious as to what ad network Blast Monkeys is using because I do not see any ads at all. I see where the ads are suppose to be but no ads, just the word "Advertisements"at the bottom.

Sid [import]uid: 7475 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 83885[/import]

#13

@PL4YER here on my device is the same thing.

I have sent a e-mail asking about Blast Monkeys ad network, if you want try one of Yobonja`s channel:

Contact us:

http://www.yobonja.com/contact-us/

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/Yobonja

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Yobonja [import]uid: 13454 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 83897[/import]

#14

Ads:

There are three well-known options with Corona: AdMob, Inneractive, InMobi. InMobi’s fill rate is pitiful even on a good day, so it’s fairly useless. Inneractive is about 50-80% and AdMob is around 35-55%. If you double-shift AdMob and Inneractive, you can approach a virtual 100% fill rate. (By double-shift, I mean having ads for both appear in the same spot and hiding the one you feel is less important to you when necessary)

IAP:

This is iOS only for now. I’ve found that the “free to download, pay to unlock full features/hide ads” approach doesn’t work that well. Users either have to pay or go elsewhere and they usually won’t pay. The ads do help the bottom line though. It seems a much better approach is to offer fully-featured apps for free and then charge for shortcuts (e.g. unlimited continues, power-ups, extra levels, etc.) [import]uid: 36054 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 83911[/import]

#15

@KeepTrying yea something is definitely wrong with the app (free version) because no ads are showing up. Either it’s code error or ad network doesn’t have anything to show. I’m on iphone 4 in Los Angeles area so there should be some ads. [import]uid: 7475 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 83932[/import]

#16

@KeepTrying and PL4YER: I have ads all the time! [import]uid: 90610 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 83937[/import]

#17

@Dingo That’s really odd lol. I just checked again to see and yup, still no ads on Blast Monkeys Free edition. Just a spinner then a black box. [import]uid: 7475 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 83949[/import]

#18

that’s weird! i get funny ads like “girl waiting for you” etc :slight_smile: [import]uid: 90610 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 83950[/import]

#19

and that’s one of the reasons why I like iAds. Quality over quantity :slight_smile: [import]uid: 7475 topic_id: 15831 reply_id: 83958[/import]